Armed Madhouse Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War It's Them versus Us. Greg Palast, the most censored journalist in American media, comes to Portland to discuss his latest book — Armed Madhouse: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War — including the secrets of the secret war for oil in Iraq; how the last election was stolen, and the next one; pushing Tom Friedman off his Flat Earth; the truth about globalization; the war on terror as a profit center and finally, class war: they take away your job at General Motors and, if you complain, they drown you in the Mississippi. They've got the war-making machinery, the terrorizing machinery and control of the ballot boxes; they've got the politicians and the receipts to prove it; they've got the cash and the power...and we've got we the people. They don't stand a chance.

Greg Palast is great. I've had his on my calendar for weeks. I just hope we don't have the situation we had last time he came to PSU where the opening guest took up all the time and we only got about 20 min of Palast. That sucked. I was paying to see Palast speak.

and props to Dave Mazza/Portland Alliance, KBOO and all the other great people who made it possible.

i just wish all the revelatory info coming from people like Palast these days wasn't followed soley by "now get out there and vote/march!"

there a number of people engaging in a number of respectable tactics, and i don't know that they don't work... but direct action (at least) needs to become part of respectable conversation if doing the same thing over and over again doesn't work. again and again.

The turnout was pretty amazing. I might write something up tomorrow given the time and the memory.

I thought about the vote/march thing and yes there is much more to be done. However, I do agree with Palast and I think there's a distinction to be made between what he was saying and "doing the same thing over and over again." I have felt, as he has, that changes to the electoral system have to be made by groups like the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition. However, I think it's important to reject the notion that because the Republicans are preventing millions of votes from being counted voting isn't important. If they're going to steal the election the least, the very least people could do, is force them to steal it big. The more they have to rig the more they will make mistakes and the more determined people will become as more and more come to realize that the elections are being stolen. So what Palast was arguing is not that we keep doing the same thing, with low voter turnout due to apathy but rather that millions more are encouraged to show up to the polls. That is something that has not been done yet. Now the critique could be made that people should not utilize the same tactics as they have in the past because those have not reached their goals. Or that the time and effort could be better spent elsewhere. But the voting/marching may yet prove to be an important piece of what is to come, though it is certainly not the only important piece.

Greg urged all of us to write our County Election Clerks and demand
Verified Elections in Oregon.

He told of spoiled votes and how he once flew to New Mexico
And there he found 34,000 uncounted ballots in the garbage so to speak
Problems with chads, touch screens, and GLITCH¡¦s these were the ¡§spoiled votes¡¨

He discusses the other type of ¡§rejected ballots¡¨ which also were not counted.
These were known as ¡§provisional ballots¡¨.
Which were all those Military Ballots, that were returned because they couldn¡¦t be ¡§forwarded to the soldier¡¦s location?¡¨
Resulting in many Soldiers that didn¡¦t get to vote at all.
And ¡K.ALL, by the way, were black soldiers.

Then there was the Felony Voters ¡K.to the tune of 94,000 whom were targeted in Florida.
In one case of this rejecting voters, Greg noticed was, where the Republican State Party Chairman was challenging these black voters credibility, and well, it turns out that every single name on their list was a good legal voter.
I think he said around 1 million 900 thousands votes were not counted due to these provisional ballots eventually being tossed in the garbage

Greg then discussed the Oil Lies
And how he had secretly taped these big Huston Oil guy¡¦s and himself discussing the plan.
Only to latter have to remind them when they were lying that he had them on tape, playing ¡§their own voice¡¨ as proof to get them to remember.
They had ¡§a Plan¡¨ and it was given to Greg by the ol stupid guy ruse
He says to one ¡§Hey!¡¨ ¡K.¡§what is your plan mine is different¡¨
They told him
To be used in Iraq it was called The Plan for Sustainable Oil Industry.

He goes on to mention James Baker III, whom he exposes as a man with an office in the White House & Saudi Arabia. He joked about how Baker plays in the Oval Office.
How he represents big players like the Carlyle Group, Exxon, and Bush and the Saudi¡¦s who were sued in the 911 Tower attack.

With meetings and Oil War plans being in the making they all planned
This was such, as the private meeting with Cheney in his bunker. This meeting was also attended by Ken Lay and others in March of 2000 and together they all worked on the plan.
In what most of us would refer to as „³ ¡¨price fixing¡¨ these guys brokered deals which they claimed would ¡§enhance the relationship with OPEC¡¨
It was the old sales pitch ¡K..¡§Less oil¡¨ = high prices.
.
Back when Iraq appropriated the oil wells from Iran in the 60¡¦s
Greg mentions in Iraq there is 74 fields and only 15 are being in production?
He asked Why so little production in this area?
He refers to 1920 and Winston Churchill who Greg says invented Iraq and for its purpose of oil and oil drilling ¡K.which currently today is that company known as British Petroleum
He mentioned how when John Kennedy was talking with the British after being asked to join in and overthrow the Government of Iran by attacking Iraq who had appropriated the oil and land.
But then Kennedy turned around and told the British how they had been robbing the Iraq people for so long it wasn¡¦t appropriation of their oil wells¡K it was justice¡¨

Greg mentions 253 billion dollars flowing out to OPEC from the US
And 1/3 of a trillion coming back which is about 311 billion
In fact since the war began Exxon reserves have grown by 666 billion dollars.

He talked of Venezuela, offering cheap oil and having plenty of the reserves to do it.
Greg mentions Chavez doesn¡¦t like the US oil plans, and coincidently Venezuela, owns a key U.S. subsidiary called Citgo Petroleum Corp., which has 14,000 gas stations and owns eight oil refineries in the US
He offers cheap oil but said he will not give the US his,¡¨countries money¡¨ back
He is willing to help the poor with cheap oil but not loan or put his profits into the US economy.
In fact to prove his point Greg said Chavez withdrew 20 billion dollars out of the US and loaned it to the countries of Argentina and Ecuador.

He ends the lecture by promoting his book and encouraging us to get out and vote.
He talked of Martin Luther Kings Family being proud of his new book Armed Madhouse.
Proud enough to place this book on their father¡¦s grave which is what was told to Greg by one of the family members. He ends with a short inspiring talk of marching for civil right
And a references by Jessie Jackson saying, how they should march down and throw the book through one of the white house windows not put it on a grave.
And a brief why we should bother to vote, - and a short ¡§don¡¦t take our flag¡¨ reflection.

They want to take votes from dead soldier, well make them Steal them, he says!
Greg predicts that they will take (steal) 5 million votes this next time in 2008
So he says we will need to then have¡K.. 6 billion voters at the polls on that day!
Greg then closed with a quote, a fitting choice to repeat
(I think it was from Bush who the quote was from) a reminder from March 17 in a message to the Iraqi people
¡§Do not fight for a dieing regime ¡Kit is not worth your life¡¨

We could heed those words today ourselves, says Greg.

(Pardon any misquotes or unintentional misprints or incorrect note deciphering ~just an average joe passing along what he can)

sorry for the bad font-symbols in the body of my post
I did a cut-n-paste from Word to Notebook and somehow screwed up the text
I did try to repost the same article, but must of copied the same problem "again!"
*next time?......it will be better
I am reluctant to repost this for the 3rd time

I hopefully [?} cleaned up this messy font, for easier reading
:-: Joe

Greg urged all of us to write our County Election Clerks and demand

Verified Elections in Oregon.

He told of spoiled votes and how he once flew to New Mexico

And there he found 34,000 uncounted ballots in the garbage so to speak

Problems with chads, touch screens, and GLITCH's these were the "spoiled votes"

He discusses the other type of "rejected ballots" which also were not counted.

These were known as "provisional ballots".

Which were all those Military Ballots, that were returned because they couldn't be "forwarded to the soldier's location?"

Resulting in many Soldiers that didn't get to vote at all.

And ... .ALL, by the way, were black soldiers.

Then there was the Felony Voters ... .to the tune of 94,000 whom were targeted in Florida.

In one case of this rejecting voters, Greg noticed was, where the Republican State Party Chairman was challenging these black voters credibility, and well, it turns out that every single name on their list was a good legal voter.

I think he said around 1 million 900 thousands votes were not counted due to these provisional ballots eventually being tossed in the garbage

Greg then discussed the Oil Lies

And how he had secretly taped these big Huston Oil guy's and himself discussing the plan.

Only to latter have to remind them when they were lying that he had them on tape, playing "their own voice" as proof to get them to remember.

They had "a Plan" and it was given to Greg by the ol stupid guy ruse

He says to one "Hey!" ... ."what is your plan mine is different"

They told him

To be used in Iraq it was called The Plan for Sustainable Oil Industry.

He goes on to mention James Baker III, whom he exposes as a man with an office in the White House & Saudi Arabia. He joked about how Baker plays in the Oval Office.

How he represents big players like the Carlyle Group, Exxon, and Bush and the Saudi's who were sued in the 911 Tower attack.

With meetings and Oil War plans being in the making they all planned

This was such, as the private meeting with Cheney in his bunker. This meeting was also attended by Ken Lay and others in March of 2000 and together they all worked on the plan.

In what most of us would refer to as à "price fixing" these guys brokered deals which they claimed would "enhance the relationship with OPEC"

It was the old sales pitch ... .."Less oil" = high prices.

.

Back when Iraq appropriated the oil wells from Iran in the 60's

Greg mentions in Iraq there is 74 fields and only 15 are being in production?

He asked Why so little production in this area?

He refers to 1920 and Winston Churchill who Greg says invented Iraq and for its purpose of oil and oil drilling ... .which currently today is that company known as British Petroleum

He mentioned how when John Kennedy was talking with the British after being asked to join in and overthrow the Government of Iran by attacking Iraq who had appropriated the oil and land.

But then Kennedy turned around and told the British how they had been robbing the Iraq people for so long it wasn't appropriation of their oil wells... it was justice"

Greg mentions 253 billion dollars flowing out to OPEC from the US

And 1/3 of a trillion coming back which is about 311 billion

In fact since the war began Exxon reserves have grown by 666 billion dollars.

He talked of Venezuela, offering cheap oil and having plenty of the reserves to do it.

Greg mentions Chavez doesn't like the US oil plans, and coincidently Venezuela, owns a key U.S. subsidiary called Citgo Petroleum Corp., which has 14,000 gas stations and owns eight oil refineries in the US

He offers cheap oil but said he will not give the US his,"countries money" back

He is willing to help the poor with cheap oil but not loan or put his profits into the US economy.

In fact to prove his point Greg said Chavez withdrew 20 billion dollars out of the US and loaned it to the countries of Argentina and Ecuador.

He ends the lecture by promoting his book and encouraging us to get out and vote.

He talked of Martin Luther Kings Family being proud of his new book Armed Madhouse.

Proud enough to place this book on their father's grave which is what was told to Greg by one of the family members. He ends with a short inspiring talk of marching for civil right

And a references by Jessie Jackson saying, how they should march down and throw the book through one of the white house windows not put it on a grave.

And a brief why we should bother to vote, - and a short "don't take our flag" reflection.

They want to take votes from dead soldier, well make them Steal them, he says!

Greg predicts that they will take (steal) 5 million votes this next time in 2008

So he says we will need to then have... .. 6 billion voters at the polls on that day!

Greg then closed with a quote, a fitting choice to repeat

(I think it was from Bush who the quote was from) a reminder from March 17 in a message to the Iraqi people

"Do not fight for a dieing regime ... it is not worth your life"

We could heed those words today ourselves, says Greg.

(Pardon any misquotes or unintentional misprints or incorrect note deciphering ~just an average joe passing along what he can)